GS(X)1100ESD Long term project.....

[Suzuki Mad]

Saturday evening update.


This is where I am.


Rear end together just waiting to go back on the bike.





Front end waiting to go on.





Carbs stripped as far as I can get them for the moment.








Rear brake now off the holder. Waiting for seals to arrive.





In the box is a good left side calliper plus a few spares to go on once cleaned up and sorted.





With the new forks the anti-dive bleeders are free as with the new front Left calliper so only the front right calliper bleeder is the issue.


New parts to collect monday to sort the rear end going back in and I can refit the rear end, front end and the biek is ready to roll. Just brakes to sort and she can be stopped too.

[Suzuki Mad]

Chatted with my 'Bro' this morning. He's a fabricator/welder of some 30 years experience (retired now) and he saw on reason why the Swinging arm lug thats missing and the crack in the mudguard couldn't be sorted easily. Just need to clean them up and take the to the local welder.
Had a play with the header bolts. I know 1 is snapped so the headers will have to come out to give access whether its a weld a nut job or drill out action. I'm pleased to announce that all 7 bolts came free easily!!!!!

I then pulled the carbs off the bike. Stripped them down with little fuss. Petrol inside smells like varnish but they were very clean. The jets and tubes are blocked so its likely she didn't run at all. I did 'lose' a float needle due to me forgetting to remove it from the housing before trying to pull the housing from the carb. Shot it about 6ft away behind the chest freezer so had to pull that out to find the missing part.

The down side of the day was I couldn't get the top rail off the carbs so I can give them a good ultrasonic bath. Even with a JIS bit in the impact driver they just wont come out. Going to try a bit of heat tomorrow and failing that it's more drastic of trying a hammer and punch to see if I can knock them out. Just hope that I dont snap any off as finding these carbs is like finding rocking horse poo.

On another down side I ordered a new battery for the bike. All looked good as I have bought from these people before. Ordered online, site showed stock. Following morning I get an email saying they are out of stock and they will get a new delivery in 7/10 working days.

[Suzuki Mad]

Had a productive drive today.

Picked up a small part of the bike that I needed.



Now I can make a rolling chassis, that will make it easier to move around and give me more access when I need it.

[Suzuki Mad]

This one will be fun to sort.



Head off or in frame?

This is when I wish I had a welder, washers and nuts here. I'm not brave enough to drill it out myself. Done that, got the T shirt and people show videos on youtube of what I would end up with if I tried and they are fixing.......

[slayer61]

Long term indeed. My front end conversion was 5 years Keep after it & it'll come around

[steveb922]

I had a brief glance at Robinsons website, and it seemed to me that most of the seals, boots etc for GSs of that era were still available. Not necessarily as a kit, but as single items.

[Suzuki Mad]

Cheers steveb922.

At the moment I'm still at the assess stage. Need to hear the engine run, hear if its got rattles and knocks and whether its a reliable lump in its current condition. A rather a lot of money can get thrown at that bit so if its a non runner or needs loads of work like my last one did it's probably not going to get done.

I guess the down side is 3 of my bikes all use the same callipers front and rear. With the parts now becoming scarce it's going to be harder to keep them on the road.

Another part of me is why couldn't I have found this one back in 2004 when I started looking for one? It was less than 20 miles from my home tucked away in a shed. That's one of those things I will have to make peace with.

[steveb922]

The good thing about long-term projects is that there is no great pressure to get it finished. It's not like you need it to get to work on Monday morning. I bought a TS250 a while back - turned about to be a mix of two different models. My approach was to make a good job of the frame, then to work on sub-assemblies as and when time and funds allow. Lots of unobtainable parts, so I've made a list of part numbers I need to keep the project going - this gets checked against E-Bay, CMSNL, Facebook groups etc regularly. A second list is items that would be useful, but I don't actually need yet - these get bought if I see them at a reasonable price. Don't get discouraged - Suzuki were good at using the same parts on lots of different models. Or equally just send the project to me. I'll finish it sometime this decade....

[Suzuki Mad]

Thanks Salty_Monk and dorkburger for your comments. Been a tough few days of soul searching and deliberations. I did say at the start it was a long term project.

[dorkburger]

Think on it for a few days.... Then decide.

[salty_monk]

I think that a lot of these projects turn out to be more than imagined... Just keep going, you'll get there eventually

[Suzuki Mad]

So this is what I have found so far as in jobs to do.

Rear brakes.
Rear brakes are shot. The seals kits are on longer available from Suzuki. I have got stainless steel pistons here but need seal kits to sort that out. They are apart and bleeders are working so I guess that's a bonus. The rear brake master cylinder is Not working. It will need a rebuild kit.

Fronts brakes are shot too. Suzuki stopped making the seals and piston kits for those too. I will have to buy stainless pistons and new seals from somewhere else..... add in for good measure the front master cylinder shot. Suzuki dont do kits for this also. It looks like I will have to go with a Bandit 1200 master cylinder and swap the clutch side to a 600 bandit to match. Add to that I snapped a bleeder off the front left calliper. It was rotten as a pear! I've left the right side alone. Haven't tried the anti dive ones.

I also have run out of brake fluid!

Moving around the bike.

No 3 cylinder has a broken stainless bolt in one hole.

The trick swinging arm needs work on the shaft to go through the bearings and take 8mm bolts. Think somebody other than me was using a rather large hammer on it and has burred the edges of the shaft and where the bolts go in. Also one of the cam clamps has what's left of a cut off bolt in the hole that needs removing. Then I will have to source new bolts so it can be tightened up. I'm also not sure if its been converted to a 530/520 chain size than the standard 630 size.

The Headers have to come off to get at the sump and drain bolt! Oh joy. I'm not sure the exhaust will fit so thats being shelved until a later date.

It needs a Battery and an air filter too.

Forgot to mention the frame repair for the gear change to work too.

Long term work will be rust prevention. Do you strip and repaint/stove enamel/powder coat?
Bearings. Replace the lot? Steering, wheel, swinging arm bearings?

So lots of fun here.

I tried yesterday to get a spare battery on to it to see what lights and electrics worked and failed miserably. Then realised that the two keys are 2 different keys. One works the ignition the other the tank, helmet lock and tail seat lock.

I'm thinking of just parking it up and walking away, maybe even scrapping it myself for the parts. A real shame.

[Suzuki Mad]

Been up since 5:30am and the house is asleep apart from me and the dogs.

It's a cold blustery April morning and too early to be making noise in the workshop.

I am wondering what the hell I am doing. 59 year old looking at a bike I owned when I was 23. It's looking a dam sight rougher than I am.

I chatted to my cousin in the IOM last night. He's a Norton guy and does full restores on them. As I said, we chatted and his view was getting it running and on the road then ride it and enjoy it as it is. Don't change anything. Get the parts you need slowly as they come up and swap a bit out at a time.

I look at the rusty frame with the original Suzuki sticker and frame number and think I saw that in 1984. Then think 'he's right.' But then part of me isn't at peace.

I genuinely hate the Socket headed Allen bolts in stainless steel and all I want to do is rip it down to a bear frame, get it media blasted and repainted to start with. Then pull the untested lump apart, clean it up and rebuild that. Then find unobtainium such as new BS34 carbs in black, all the original Suzuki bolts. I guess my answer is I far prefer working on them than riding them and I like the original.

17 years ago I had a plan and a dream to pay homage to my original GSX1100ESD, which I did. Now what do I do with the real thing. I guess I wanted it as it was back in 1984 and its not.

[Grimly]

SS allen bolts are an improvement on the cheesysteel OEM.

[Suzuki Mad]

A bit more delving and found this.



What's happened here is the mixture screws on these carbs were brass. They also had a habit of seizing in. The GSX1100EFE have the same style carb with the same style but different material mixture screw. So the evidence is here that somewhere along its life line the brass ones seized so somebody dropped the posts the mixture screws go into and put EFE ones in as the brass ones are not available from Suzuki and not shown as a part number!!!!

Do you like the fuel line with filter!



I dont think the PO wanted the vacuum tap to work like it was designed to. Good use of a Suzuki no 7 bolt though.



And here we have the PO's love of Socket heads Allen bolts in stainless.

Exhibit A



Exhibit B.




So with this all mounting up its looking harder to do a return to standard as I would like too. I want to keep as much of the original bike as I can than put new bits on and say its the original. So it's going to have to live with some old bits that have been changed and altered.

With the lack of a front brake master cylinder rebuild kit from Suzuki and other places such as aftermarket from Tourmax, I had been looking at a Bandit 1200 front master cylinder. Even that made me at odds with myself and my desire for originality.

I wonder if my OCD for originality will survive this onslaught of stainless steel bolts than genuine Suzuki ones?